The mother of a disabled girl who was turned away by three Bristol taxi drivers has said she hopes taxi drivers will learn lessons after three were suspended.

Karen Tilley and her daughter Josselin were left stranded after they came out of the Hippodrome after seeing a show last November.

Mother and daughter, who are from Wiltshire, went to the nearest taxi rank to catch a Bristol Blue Hackney Carriage back to Temple Meads station, but several drivers there refused to take them, because 11-year-old Josselin is in a wheelchair.

She later posted on Facebook together with photographs of the taxis that turned her away, in a post which went viral around the city.

Bristol City Council investigated after the matter was reported to them, and now they have been suspended for various periods of time.

A meeting of the council’s public safety and protection committee this week was held behind closed doors, decided the level of punishment to be handed to the taxi drivers, but ruled that they could not be named.

Two of the drivers had their licence suspended for four months, while the other received a six month suspension.

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“I am pleased that the committee chose to apply some punishment to these drivers,” said Karen.

“Not because I wanted to see them off the roads, but because I would like this to be a lesson to other taxi drivers that they need to make sure they aren’t putting disabled people in the position that my daughter and I were put in.

“Making sure you have made the right adjustments for people with wheelchairs really is a small obstacle compared to those that disabled people have to face on a daily basis.

“I hope this helps to raise awareness amongst taxi drivers about the need to be accessible to people with a disability,” she added.

The council said all three drivers will be required to undertake further training on disability assistance prior to getting their licence back.

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This will be at a cost to themselves through the council’s Gold Standard taxi driver training programme, which all Bristol taxi drivers are required to complete.

The chair of the committee is Cllr Fi Hance. She said: “It is absolutely unacceptable that anyone should be turned away by a taxi service because they use a wheelchair, or indeed have any other disability.

“We require all our Hackney Carriage taxi drivers to use wheelchair accessible vehicles and it is their responsibility to know how to use their equipment properly when it comes to assisting a disabled person, so there is no excuse for turning someone away.

“In Bristol we pride ourselves on being an inclusive and accessible city that is an exciting and vibrant place to live and visit as a tourist destination for everyone.

“The majority of our taxi drivers provide an excellent service to the city, but on occasions like this where passengers are subjected to discrimination we will investigate and take action where necessary,” she added.